I hope that someday they decide to add the diacritic to clear up the confusion (ForÄejo (/forËdÍĄÊe.jo/) is how it's supposed to be pronounced). It's 2024, there's no reason we should be afraid of non-ASCII characters.
I don't see a reason to spell it phonetically when it is a real word (forge in esperanto). A phonetic spelling would also only be more digestible to readers who know the language the phonetic spelling is tailored at (phonetic spelling is language specific as different languages use different ways to represent different sounds).
Ä is simply the english sound of the consonants in the following words: "john", "gem", "jar". And j is pronounced as the y in "yes" and "yoink"
The diacritic would clear up confusion, because "g" without the diacritic has different sound (like the g in "gamma", "girl", "go" in english). The diacritic as a bonus would also makes it clear that it isn't supposed to be pronounced it as if it were in english, because english does not use the ^ diacritic. It would also extinguish my annoyance at seeing a misspelled word being used as a trademark.
i think this is the first comment i've read since joining the fediverse to make me actually laugh. thank you for posting something far funnier than it had any right to be.
I know it's officially for-hey-oe, but I always say forge + joe cause I find it easier. I used to say "forjo" (like "forge" ending in an "o", or "for joe" sped up) as well.